Recent trends have driven use of hinge-line rotary electro-mechanical actuators (EMA) to manipulate the movement of an aircraft aileron, for example. A rotational axis of the hinge-line EMA is aligned with that of the aileron and the actuator acts as a hinge (hence, the term “hinge-line”), which allows angular rotation of the aileron. Typical electromechanical hinge-line rotary actuator designed for flight-control applications are arranged to use a conventional motor that is framed (i.e., encased, housed, or mounted) and includes a rotor. The rotor is disposed inside the frame and indirectly connected to an end of a planetary gearbox or gear set through a drive shaft or coupler. In this way, the motor is disposed exterior to and in alignment with the gear set, and there are bearings for the motor and gear set. Such alignment is accomplished by a precision-machined housing for the motor and gear set or compliant coupling on an output shaft of the motor to an input of the gear set.
The conventional hinge-line EMA housing, however, is susceptible to jamming that may occur due to excessive load applied to the EMA in response to bending the wings. In addition, aircraft wings typically realize a load during flight, which causes the wings to bend. The bending of the wings in turn applies undesirable stress on conventional hinge-line EMAs.